Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at 2024 PSC Scholarships Award Ceremony

Speech by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education and Minister-In-Charge of the Public Service at the Public Service Commission Scholarships Award Ceremony on 17 July 2024 at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre

Chairman,
Members of the Public Service Commission,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

A very good afternoon to all of you. To the many parents here, this must be a very proud moment for you. To the many scholarship recipients here, this must be the most exciting moment for you.

2        Many years ago, I was in your position. I do not know what is on your mind now, and I do not know if you know what you have signed up for. I certainly did not, at your age. I took up the scholarship knowing little about what to expect and what was expected of me. But over time, I have come to appreciate how different this scholarship is. So today I would like to start with that. What did you sign up for?

3        It is not just another scholarship that merely gives you some stipend for your school fees, and gets you through university. It is also not merely about a job that you can secure after your studies. I am sure the Public Service Commission has no doubt about your ability to secure one, whether you take up the PSC Scholarship or not. Instead, this scholarship comes with responsibility – it comes with a calling to serve. It comes with a very fundamental calling - for all of you to lead Singapore onward to the next step. More simply put, it will be your generation that will lead us to SG100. In your hands, upon your shoulders, you have this responsibility.

4        Recently, at Public Service Week, I said that the role and mission of the Public Service is to build a thriving Singapore full of opportunities and hope for all Singaporeans. To build is to actively do something, not passively react to changes or wait for things to happen. To build is to create an opportunity, and the best way to anticipate the future is to shape it.

5        We must build a thriving Singapore that defies the odds of history, and transcends our geographical boundaries and constraints. Not many city states have survived 100 years or more. We are the latest to attempt it. At the same time, never before have city states had the best chance of doing so, by building connections in many dimensions beyond air, land and sea connectivity, and in terms of talent, ideas and financial flows, for example. Through that, we have hope and opportunity for Singapore to transcend our geographical constraints, turn them into opportunities, for Singapore to reach SG100 and beyond. That is both our challenge and our responsibility.

6        Is it daunting? Yes, it is. But let me share with you where we have come from. Every generation will have its fair share of challenges. In the 1960s when we were newly independent, we had to take care of our defence where we had very little to call our own defence force. When the British withdrew east of the Suez and left Sembawang Naval Base, 20 per cent of Singaporeans were out of jobs, including my grandparents. In the 1960s, having left our colonial history behind us, we were confronted with communism. In the 1960s and 70s, we had to create jobs for our people. We also had two oil crises. In the 1960s and 1970s, we had very little public housing. But over the last 50 over years, we have built public housing for more than 80 per cent of our people who can proudly call their homes. In the 1960s when we first started, we barely had enough water to drink, to support our industries. I remember my geography lessons where we only had to learn the names of three reservoirs – MacRitchie, Pierce and Seletar. Today, we have 17 reservoirs. Today, two thirds of the entire island is a water catchment area, notwithstanding our urbanisation. Today, we have four taps — imported water, water from our local sources, desalinated water, and NEWater. Today, Singapore is one of the leading countries in water technology, and we export the technology.

7        Why do I share this with you? Because it reminds us where we come from and how we can overcome in spite of our constraints. Your generation will have your fair share of challenges. Over and above the challenges that I have mentioned, which are still very much alive and with us, going forward, we will have new challenges.

8        If water was our challenge for the last 50 years, clean energy will be our challenge for the next 50 years. If we have enough clean energy, we will be able to have enough clean water, food, industries and many other things for our people.

9        In the last 50 years, survival and security were uppermost on our mind. In the next 50 years, the global order will undergo another transformation. The years of peace and global order that we have gotten used to in the last few decades might no longer be there. Instead, we might be returning to history 100 years ago just like the 1920s where we saw the rise of protectionism, and now in the guise of industrial policy. We will certainly see a more fragmented global order, a more fragile economic system, and certainly also more fractious domestic politics in many countries, and if we're not careful, in Singapore.

10      We will have to build a new generation of housing to cater to the needs of a new generation, and we will reach a point where we have to refresh our housing in a 100-year cycle. We will have to take care of our aging population, and yet create new opportunities for productive longevity.

11      We also have to deal with climate change.

12      Having heard all these challenges, and for me to tell you that it is in your hands and upon your shoulders together with the rest of the public service, will you still want to join us? To lead this country is not for the faint hearted. We never promised you a bed of roses as leaders of this country. We only promised ourselves that we will give our very best, our utmost to all the things that we do in service of our people and country.

13      But perhaps at this stage of our development, our biggest challenge is none of the above. The biggest challenge and my greatest fear for us all is a sense of complacency. To think that Singapore has arrived, that we no longer need to make difficult choices, that we do not need to take hard decisions, or that we think that we have the resources to do everything that we want to do without having to have any trade-offs. This is furthest from the truth.

14      I hope you will never fall into this trap of complacency. In Singapore, the only easy day was yesterday — when our minds were focused by our finite resources to make hard but wise choices for the long term. I hope in our affluence, when we have much resources, we will not choose the easy way out. Or have a laziness of the mind to think that we can have it all.

15      The geopolitical realities that confront us are challenging. To work out a new living in a new world is not easy. To hold our people in times of affluence may be even more difficult than to keep our people together in times of need. If we were united by our poverty in the past, let it not be our affluence now that divides us - both absolutely or relatively. So now is not the time to be distracted to think that we have arrived, and that we can be on autopilot maintenance mode.

16      Now is the time for us to recommit ourselves to continue building this country. So that even when we are at the forefront with no one else to copy, we will not rest on our laurels. Instead, each and every day of our lives, we are committed to asking the following simple questions: where are the new challenges that may erode our edge and not allow us the chance to be called Singaporeans? Where are those opportunities to create value propositions for ourselves so that we can continue to shine as Singapore, a free and independent country.

17      For that, I only ask one thing from all of you. I ask that you have gumption. The gumption to venture out and get to know the world as it is, come back with a fresh perspective. Gumption to connect with the world regardless of the differences. While the rest of the world may be divided and distracted, let us remain focused and united. Gumption to always think of new value propositions so that we don't have to ask the question of who do we choose, but we can always make the proposition for others to choose us instead. Gumption to transcend our differences. We are never a country that is built on a common path. But we can always be a country that is built on a shared future. A sense of shared ethos founded on meritocracy, multiculturalism, incorruptibility, and the pursuit of excellence.

18      Finally, I hope in your generation, you will help us to build a nation where we call ourselves Singaporeans out of conviction and not a nation where we just call ourselves Singaporeans out of convenience. I always ask this question in many of my school visits: why do you want to be called a Singaporean? Many will tell me it is the family ties here, the food here and so on. I always challenge ourselves and ask ourselves these more difficult questions: If the chips are down, if we are no longer successful, if the challenges that are confronting us are bigger than ever before, will we stay? And even if the chips are down, will we fill it all up again? That is a Singaporean by conviction. And I hope that when we reach SG 100, we will have truly a Singaporean tribe, fuelled by conviction, based on our ideas and ethos and not just based on what the country can offer us.

19      And when you join the Public Service, I will not promise you that we have a perfect Public Service. We will have our highs and our lows. But through it all, I hope you will remember this moment when you pledged to serve the country and people. That even if the chips are down – or be in the Public Service or in Singapore – that you will be the one in your respective stations to help us build it all up again. That we will truly have a nation of Singaporeans full of conviction – because that will be how we will define the spirit of Singapore. We are never defined by our circumstances, we are always defined by our responses to our circumstances. The 1965 generation have shown us the way with their backs to the wall, and nothing very much to their names. They built it all up for us. Should we ever have the misfortune to lose it – some or all – we will be determined to build back better and that is what I hope you will do.

20      So joining the Public Service is not just about solving problems. More than that it is about pre-empting problems. But even more than that, joining the Public Service is for us to take on the leadership role to unleash the potential of our people in service of our country. If in the next leg of Singapore's development, we can all define our success not by our individual accomplishments but by our collective contributions, I am sure Singapore will be here in SG100 and more.

21      On that note, you can have your cooling off period. If there is any hesitation it is not too late to say now. But if you take up this scholarship, I truly hope to see you, work with you, work with the rest of the Public Service, to take our country forward, to keep Singapore going, to keep growing and most importantly, keep Singapore glowing. Thank you very much.